The Words
by KBelle1
Summary: Penny and her family recently moved in next door to Sheldon and Leonard. However, Penny and her husband have a quickly deteriorating relationship. In the midst of everything, she and Sheldon bond. Will she have the strength to do what is best for herself and her daughter? She'll have to make a choice. Rated M for themes such as domestic violence, strong language, and sexual content
1. Chapter 1

_Beep beep beep!_

Penny groaned as she looked at the time. 5:15 am. She got out of bed slowly and padded across the hall. She started her morning routine, first taking a scalding hot shower, blow drying and curling her hair, brushing her teeth, and then putting on her makeup. By this time it was 6:15 and time to wake up her daughter for school.

"Charlotte," she whispered, brushing her daughter's hair back, "time to wake up."

"Go away," Charlotte groaned, shoving her little face into the pillow. She was 8 years old, and full of personality.

"Charlotte, you have to get up _right now_ and get ready for school. You didn't take your shower last night, so you need to take it this morning," Penny said, hardening her voice slightly.

Her daughter grunted, and threw the covers off her body. "Fine."

Penny sighed and walked into the small kitchen of the apartment to prepare Charlotte's breakfast. She didn't relax until she heard the bathroom door slam and the water start running.

While Charlotte ate her pancakes, Penny looked around the apartment disdainfully. Penny, her husband, and her daughter had just moved in the past weekend (3 days ago) and were still pretty much living out of cardboard boxes. Penny was a nurse who worked day shift, and her husband was a warehouse worker who worked nights at the local furniture store's distribution center. Because of their schedules, it was hard to find time to unpack.

Her reverie was broken by the sound of the front door opening. She looked up and smiled at her husband. He merely grunted, nodding his head at his family. Her smile faltered, but only slightly. She knew her family dynamic wasn't the best for their daughter, but she couldn't leave Kurt. He had always been good to her, and she felt that Charlotte needed her father around. However, she was starting to see the effect it was having on Charlotte. Her once happy, go lucky little girl was developing an attitude, and preferred to spend her time by herself. Penny wanted desperately to fix what was happening to her family.

"I'm goin' to bed," Kurt grunted, before stumbling to the bedroom and shutting the door. Penny smiled encouragingly at Charlotte.

"Char, what do you say, after school today, you, your dad, and I go to the Cheesecake Factory and get dinner?" Penny asked as she took the finished plate of pancakes to the sink.

"That sounds fun!" Charlotte said, perking up slightly.

By then, it was 7:15 and time to leave to take Charlotte to school, and for Penny to head into the hospital. They walked out of the front door into the hallway. While Penny was locking the door, Charlotte continued to talk to her mother about her school work. As she was talking though, she was also walking backwards. She continued this direction, until she ran straight into the man walking out of apartment 4a.

"Ex _cuse_ me!" the man sputtered out as his books and briefcase fell to the ground. " _Please_ watch where you are going!"

"I'm so sorry, sir," Charlotte said, tears forming in the corner of her eyes. She hated being embarrassed, and she felt horrible.

"Oh my god, are you okay?" Penny asked, bending down to help the man pick up his things.

"I am fine," he responded stiffly. "You must be the new neighbors."

"Um, yeah. I'm Penny, and this is my daughter Charlotte," Penny said, sticking her hand out.

The man disregarded her hand. "I'm Sheldon. I live in this apartment with my roommate Leonard."

Penny was a little off-put by Sheldon refusing to shake her hand, however, she didn't say anything about it. "Well, it was a pleasure to meet you Sheldon," she said with a small smile. As she started walking down the stairs with Charlotte, Sheldon was right behind them.

"Neither of you are involved in any tap dancing groups, correct?" Sheldon asked out of the blue.

"No…" Penny answered.

"And you don't play any instruments?"

"Char plays the piano, but she has a keyboard with headphones," Penny responded, wondering where this line of questioning was headed.

"Oh, well that's wonderful! You are already leaps and bound ahead of the last neighbor. He had 2 dogs and played the trumpet."

Penny chuckled. "Nope, nothing too exciting. Just me, Char, and my husband Kurt."

Sheldon nodded. "Would you be interested in joining us for dinner tonight? It is the neighborly thing to do, I am told."

"Actually, I promised my daughter we would go out tonight, but maybe later this week?" Penny said.

"Plan for Wednesday," Sheldon said with a smile, as he held the door open for the two girls.

"Alright, well, have a good day…" Penny said, however when she saw him walking toward the bus stop, she felt too bad to let him continue. "Let me give you a ride. Where do you work?"

"Oh that would be wonderful! I work at CalTech. I'm a theoretical physicist at the university."

Penny trudged up the stairs at the end of her 8-hour shift. She worked in the ER, and that day it was _slammed_. She opened the door and called out to her husband. "Kurt?"

As she walked into the living room, she saw him passed out in front of the TV, beer spilled on the floor beside him.

"Kurt!" she said again, pushing on his shoulder.

"What?!" he yelled, shooting off the couch.

"How many beers have you had?" Penny asked icily, glaring at the man.

"None of your fuckin' business," he slurred at her, throwing the remote down. "Who was that fuckin' bastard you gave a ride to this morning?"

"That was our new neighbor, and he needed a ride to work," Penny replied, immediately regretting her act of kindness to the strange man.

"You know you're not supposed to be talkin' to any other men but me," Kurt said, taking a menacing step towards his wife.

"Oh, you're so full of shit!" Penny yelled, taking a step back. "You're nothing but a dead beat drunk, who only cares about himself!"

At this point, her back was against the bar that divided the living room from the kitchen.

"I may be, but I don't share what's mine," Kurt said simply, staring down at her.

"Well, I may not be yours for long," Penny said. As soon as she said it, though, she regretted it. She didn't even see him swing his fist, she only felt the resulting pain in her face, and tasted the blood on her tongue.

Kurt took a step back, as though he couldn't believe what he had done, but then began to laugh softly.

"You bastard," Penny whispered, before walking out of the apartment, slamming the door behind her.

She ran across the hall to 4a, not quite knowing why, except Sheldon seemed like a nice man. She pounded on the door desperately, silently praying to whoever was listening that someone would answer.

"Penny?" Sheldon's shocked voice was enough to make her break down. "What happened to you?"

"I…I got hit by a patient today," she said, hoping her voice wouldn't betray her.

"Don't lie," Sheldon said quietly. As oblivious as he was to social protocol, he was raised that it was never okay to raise a hand to a woman. And he knew that her husband had done this to her. It was too fresh.

"Please, can I just stay here for a little while? And I need to call my daughter and tell her to stay at her friend's house for the night.

Sheldon nodded, allowing the beautiful blonde woman to take refuge in his living room.

"Thank you," she said, before continuing to cry.


	2. Chapter 2

Penny was able to get ahold of Charlotte, and told her to stay the night with her friend. She could tell that Sheldon was uncomfortable, but he was trying his best to be comforting. He had made her a cup of tea, and offered her a blanket and an ice pack.

They were sitting on the couch next to each other when Sheldon broke the silence.

"Is this the first time?" he asked, knowing she would know what he was referring to.

"Yeah…" she said, her voice trailing off. "I mean, he's grabbed me before, and pushed me, but he's never hit me."

Sheldon nodded his head.

Penny looked around her finally, and took in the apartment. It was cozy. There were two desks with computers on them, bookshelves filled with books, and many comic book action figures littering the apartment. She also noticed the white boards.

"That's impressive," she said as she walked over to the board. Sheldon trailed behind her, watching to make sure she didn't bother the intricate work written on the board.

"So, you're like, one of those beautiful mind people, huh?" she said, grinning at him softly.

His eyebrows furrowed, and he nodded slightly. "I guess you could say that. This is my work on the Higgs Boson particle. It has yet to be discovered, however, I am planning a trip to the north pole next year to gather data."

Penny had no idea what he was talking about, but she let him ramble. He seemed passionate about his work.

He was beginning to explain the role of the Higgs Boson particle when there was a pounding on the door.

Penny knew it was Kurt. It had to be.

Sheldon went to open the door, but was stopped by Penny's hand on his arm. She shook her head, and went to answer it herself.

Kurt looked like hell. He looked like he had been crying, and the look of remorse on his face broke Penny's heart.

"I'm sorry, babe. Please come home. I don't know what got into me. I swear, I'll never do it again," Kurt pleaded, looking into her eyes.

She knew he was a master manipulator, but when he gave her that look, she always forgot.

Sheldon looked between his new friend and her husband, and felt uneasy. He had seen this before between his mother and father. They always said they would change, but never did.

And before his eyes, she had forgiven him, allowing him to pull her in his embrace. Before Penny left the apartment, though, Sheldon slipped her his phone number. He wanted her to be able to call if anything happened.

XoXoXo

Sheldon knew it wasn't his place to tell Penny what to do with her life. He'd only known her for one day, after all. But he felt a kinship with the woman. He had, after all been abused by his father from a young age, until the man had dropped dead when Sheldon was 15 from a stroke.

He was worried for her wellbeing, but there was nothing he could do. He was just an outsider. And maybe her husband could be different—maybe it really was just a one time thing.

Even though he didn't know much about Penny, he felt oddly drawn to her, to make sure she was okay.

Looking around his apartment, he noticed that she left her cup of tea on the coffee table. He figured it was a good enough reason to check in.

 _Knock knock knock_ "Penny."

 _Knock knock knock_ "Penny."

 _Knock knock—_

His knocking sequence was cut short by Kurt opening the door.

"What do you want, nerd?" Kurt asked, smirking at the tall, lanky physicist.

"Penny left her tea at my apartment," Sheldon said bitingly, restraining his anger, "I want to give it to her personally."

When she heard her name, Penny came to the door. "Sheldon! Thank you for bringing me my tea," she said, glancing between the two men.

Sheldon nodded at her and turned to leave. He hesitated briefly, looking back at her, before he finally left.

XoXoXo

Penny woke up to a phone call from Charlotte's friends mother. She reached over and sleepily answered.

"Is this Mrs. Anderson?" the woman asked. Penny sighed.

"Yes, it is. I'm sorry about having Charlotte stay with you last night…we had some family problems come up that wouldn't have been appropriate for her."

The woman on the other end _tsk'_ d. "Well, I have some extra clothes of Lizzie's that will fit her," the woman's voice softened then, "and if you need a place for her again, she's more than welcome here. She's a great little girl."

Penny and Mrs. Luckett talked for a few more minutes, before they got off the phone, Mrs. Luckett promising to make sure Charlotte got on the bus.

When she got out of bed and walked to the bathroom, she was holding her breath. She didn't want to know what her face looked like. When she got to the mirror, though, she knew she had to look.

It was worse than she thought it would be. Being a nurse, she had an idea of what to expect, but she was still shocked at the purple discoloration of her face. She couldn't go into work like that—she had to call out and get her shift covered. Luckily, she was working the evening shift, and still had plenty of time to call in.

She also needed to see if she had any make up heavy enough to cover it. She didn't want her daughter to see it when she got home from school.

As she covered her bruise with make up, she wondered what happened to her. When she and Kurt left Nebraska when she was 19, she had huge plans. She was going to be an actress. She wasn't saying that things didn't work out—after all, she had a great job doing something she loved. It was a year after the move that she found out she was pregnant with Charlotte. And that had been the tie that tethered her to a man she never wanted to spend forever with.

She loved her daughter, and she wouldn't change her existence for anything in the world. But she wanted to be free of Kurt. She'd never be able to get free though.

When she was finally satisfied that the injury wasn't visible, she walked across the hall to see Sheldon. At least Kurt had left for work already—he was pulling a double at the warehouse he worked at.

Penny knocked on the door, and was surprised when a short man with glasses answered the door instead of Sheldon—she had forgotten he had a roommate.

"Is, uh, Sheldon here?" she asked, looking around the man.

"Yeah, he's in the shower…who are you?" he asked, immediately realizing he had sounded rude. "I mean, Sheldon doesn't usually get visitors, is all. I'm Leonard, by the way."

Penny laughed a little bit. She could understand that. He was pretty quirky.

"Well, do you mind if I wait for him? I need to thank him for something."

"Sure!" Leonard said. "Make yourself at home."

"Sheldon was telling me about his board last night—" she began, only to be cut off by Leonard.

"I have a board too!" he said excitedly, showing her the board near the window, proudly.

"Oh, wow! That's impressive, too. Are you a physicist like Sheldon?" she asked, only for her query to be answered by none other than the man in question.

"Leonard is an experimental physicist. I assure you, there are no other physicists like me," Sheldon answered, a smug smirk on his face. With that remark, Leonard stalked off to taker his shower.

"O-kay," Penny said, sensing a bit of hostility between the two men. "Sheldon, I wanted to thank you for last night."

"It was no problem at all. My mother raised me to be a gentleman. Now I can tell her that I have lived up to her expectations."

Penny laughed at that. "Well, Kurt's at work the rest of the day. He won't be home until tomorrow morning, so you don't have to worry. I also was able to cover, the, you know…" she trailed off, gesturing to her cheek.

"Penny, why don't you and your daughter join us for dinner tonight? We meet at the Cheesecake Factory at 7 pm. Since you and Charlotte didn't get to go last night."

Penny smiled at the lanky man. "That would be nice."


End file.
